2017 NFL season offered overwhelming evidence of the profound impact quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had on the San Francisco 49ers. What wasn't as apparent was just how far that effect would reach. Now, more than three months removed from the end of the season and about a month since the start of free agency, the NFL's veteran-quarterback carousel has stopped spinning. In San Francisco, the ride reached its conclusion in a way that was difficult, although not impossible, to envision a year ago at this time. And for quarterbacks Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins, the outcome probably wasn't what they originally expected, either.

The Niners believe they have their franchise quarterback in Garoppolo and backed that up with what was then a record-setting contract. Cousins followed suit in landing with the Minnesota Vikings, a team that wasn't connected to him for most of his ongoing saga with the Washington Redskins.

In an alternate, albeit realistic, universe, Cousins would have been reunited with 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, and Garoppolo would likely have either been traded elsewhere or hit the market and found himself in a bidding war akin to the one Cousins just sorted [url=http://www.officialdodgersteamshop.com/Matt_Kemp_Jersey]http://www.officialdodgersteamshop.com/Matt_Kemp_Jersey[/url] through. Speaking to ESPN's Adam Schefter on his podcast, Shanahan offered some insight into his ties to Cousins -- Shanahan was the Redskins' offensive coordinator during the quarterback's first two NFL seasons -- and how Garoppolo altered the Niners' seemingly preordained plans.

I think everyone knows how I feel about Kirk," Shanahan said. "I think most of the league feels that way. ... I think anybody in free agency, of anyone who needed a quarterback, if they thought they had a chance at Kirk, I'm pretty sure every team in the league would have gone for him." In a league in which the "what if" game is easy to play, the Niners-Cousins scenario was anything but far-fetched. As far back as the 2017 owners meetings, the Niners were already planning to wait until 2018 to find their franchise quarterback. They had signed veteran Brian Hoyer as a placeholder and had no intention of using their No. 2 overall pick on a top quarterback such as Mitchell Trubisky or Deshaun Watson.

"That was the plan," Shanahan told reporters at last month's owners meetings. "I had a relationship with him. He was a good quarterback that I had been with and I had a strong feeling -- I think everyone did -- that he was going to become available. Nothing was set in stone; you never know what the Redskins were going to do, and you never knew if they would come to [url=http://www.officialvikingsjerseysstore.com/Teddy_Bridgewater_Jersey_Cheap]Teddy Bridgewater Authentic Jersey[/url] a deal, but signs were pointing that he was going to be available. And, of course, when I came to San Francisco, we didn't have a quarterback on the roster, and we were looking to get one, and that was going to be a huge possibility. But things change. Something else came across us and we are very happy that it did."

As recently as early October, when the Niners and Redskins prepared to play in the nation's capital, neither side was exactly denying that a match could be coming in the offseason, although they did their best to downplay it. Little more than two weeks later, that "something else" came courtesy of a phone call from the New England Patriots.

To hear Shanahan and general manager John Lynch tell it, the Patriots offered Garoppolo for the Niners' second-round pick. With no guarantee that Cousins would be available or even that they'd land him, the Niners say they took all of about 10 minutes to say yes. After all, Garoppolo was already on their radar and they had asked about acquiring him as far back as the scouting combine in February 2017.

"We made the trade, but then there were some days when Kyle Shanahan was, like, in mourning, because I think everybody knows his master plan was to have Kirk Cousins come in eventually," Lynch told ESPN Radio in March. "I was proud of Kyle, because I think he knew this was the right thing for our franchise. And he didn't hesitate. But then, even then, Jimmy had to really prove himself."

At the owners meetings, Lynch explained he was trying to describe how impressive Garoppolo had been to make the 49ers deviate from the potential plan. He also compared the day the team traded for Garoppolo to Christmas morning. That assessment fit better with how Shanahan remembers it."I think the mourning thing was a little bit off, but we were ecstatic when we got the trade," Shanahan said. "It kind of came out of nowhere, so we were truly pumped up about it. It surprised us at the time. But I think really what he was trying to explain was after we made that trade, nothing was a set deal."